Use of Endosulphan in Kasaragod distric, Kerala, India

Source: The Hindu 31 March 2018, S. Gomakumar.

Kasargod District is famous for its cashew plantations. The Plantation Corporation of Kerala, a state enterprise, cultivates vast areas. To protect this crop, the pesticide endosulfan was used with heavy damage to human health.

Description

Kasargod District is located in the southern part of India in Kerala State. This district is famous for its cashew plantation. Plantation Corporation of Kerala, a state government enterprise has cultivated cashew plant in the vast areas of this district. To protect this crop since the mid 1970s, the pesticide endosulfan has been widely used and aerially sprayed on cashew nut plantation covering several villages in the district [1].

The controversy for using the ‘endosulfan’ started emerging since the 1990s [2]. People residing in the villages near or within the plantation have felt that they are affected by different kinds of illnesses.

Villagers also observed that unique kinds of illness have started emerging among human and animals which was never seen before. Rumors have started that the aerial spraying of endosulfan on cashew plantations is main cause of abnormal cases of many alignments for example; cancer, skin disease, congenital deformities, sterility and other illnesses [1]. The side-effects of pesticide spray in cashew plantations are not restricted only in that district rather it was spread into the neighboring districts Karnataka, adjacent to Kasaragod [4].

As time passed, local activist groups convinced that the illness was being caused by ‘endosulfan’ - a very old off-patent pesticide of the organochlorine class [2]. Environmentalists as well as the various groups formed Anti-Endosulfan Committee to form a pressure group to ban Endosulphan. According to an estimate by Anti-Endosulfan Committee about 8,000-9,000 persons in Kasaragod district are affected due to the spraying of endosulfan in the cashew plantations. About 500 persons have lost their lives over the past decade owing to various diseases triggered by the large-scale use of pesticides in the district [4].

The matter is highly controversial one and according to some reports what really happened in Kasargod is not very clear. Some studies tried to correlate the occurrence of illness due to the endosulphan poisoning and other claim that the disease occurrence is normal and cannot be correlated with the spraying as endosulphan decay fast in warm Indian climate. These kinds of illness may not be due to Endosulphan alone [2].

UPDATE. There is an update to this case (while the origins of

the case are reported in full in Sunita Narain’s book of 2017). On 31

January 2018, The Hindu reported, that

a leading social activist, Daya Bai,

said that the Kerala government was ignoring the sufferings of mothers and

children. This was when the victims of indiscriminate spraying of the pesticide

Endosulfan in Kasaragod district staged an agitation in January 2018, demanding

that the State government implement the Supreme Court order issued in January

2017 to disburse ₹5 lakh (less than 10,000 USD) as compensation to victims on the “official list” within three

Kasaragod Estate is located in Kasaragod District in Kerala. The estate is spread over 2190 Ha. It is famous for Cashew Plantation with high yielding varieties and are being scientifically managed [5]. The estate has 113 workers, 18 staff and 6 officer as employees. Endosulfan was sprayed in Kerala, on two days each year on cashew plantations from a helicopter. The formulation that was sprayed contained about 0.05-0.1 per cent of endosulfan [2]. Endosulfan is considered as Persistent organic Pollutant (PoP) in ‘Stockholm Convention’ held in Geneva on 29th April, 2011.

A study by Centre for Science and Environment in 2001 in the area after the spraying was stopped also found the presence of endosulfan in humans, water bodies and soil.

The government estimates 710 people had died due to ill effects of aerial spraying of Endosulfan in cashew plantations in 4,696 hectares in the northern district from 1976 to 2000. However, the activists estimated that the death perhaps is much more. In another claim children are being born even now with genetic defects [4].

Farmers Indigenous groups or traditional communities International ejos Local ejos Neighbours/citizens/communities Social movements Women Local scientists/professionals Fisher people

Forms of Mobilization

Blockades Community-based participative research (popular epidemiology studies, etc..) Creation of alternative reports/knowledge Development of a network/collective action Development of alternative proposals Involvement of national and international NGOs Lawsuits, court cases, judicial activism Official complaint letters and petitions Public campaigns Street protest/marches Strikes Hunger strikes and self immolation Appeals/recourse to economic valuation of the environment

Anti-endosulfan activists protest to compensate the victims and also a total ban on the pesticide. They organized protest demonstration, strikes, and other means to lodge their demands for an end to the spraying of endosulfan in Kasaragod district. They are demanding an immediate intervention to ensure a complete stoppage of pesticide usage and advocate for the organic farming [3] [4].

Do you consider this as a success?

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Why? Explain briefly.

A global ban on endosulfan was imposed in Stockholm Convention in Geneva is mainly promoted by the incidences in Karsagod. Environmental groups such as Pesticide Action Network and Thanal has campaigned globally with horror-inducing pictures of the endosulphan effect on the human lives and environment [2]

Kerala Government frequently assured medical as well as financial helps for the victims but that promises had not been kept so far. The National Human Rights Commission's direction in 2010 to the central and state governments to take urgent steps to arrange treatment facilities and adequate financial assistance to Endosulfan victims was also not heeded to, he said [3]. The Anti-Endosulfan committee is demanding good compensation amounts for the families of each of those who died, and a family pension for the victims' families [4].

According to some opinion ‘Endosulfan issue is more of a political debate than a scientific one’. Many people got compensation due to diseases are not related to endosulfan. In January 2012, The Guardian published an article claiming that the data regarding the Kasaragod is an exaggeration [2]. Proper investigation by an independent agency with the association and causation of endosulphan use and the health impact was urgently required.